Deal With It!
by Arreo
Summary: When a woundend young man (OC) shows up at the Xavier Institute, everyone has thousands of questions. Who is he? Why did he show up here? What connection does he have with Logan? - Charles is unable to help him with his lost memories, Logan decides to take him on a trip to the Canadian Rockies, but something goes wrong... (Language/Violence/Blood)
1. Chapter 1: The Dreams

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything of Marvel's characters, stories or universe.**

There is a mix between Movie universe, Comic Universe and Cartoon Universe in this story.

This story contains at least 2 original characters.

* * *

Chapter 1: The Dreams

* * *

Night was falling at the Xavier's Institute. Most of all the students were heading to their rooms, shutting off the lights and ready to take a good night of sleep. Hank was in the Danger room's control center reading a book, lost in thoughts. He still hadn't touched the sandwich and cup coffee brought to him earlier. While lost in thoughts, he noticed the doors opening, It was Logan who entered.

"I'm heading down the Danger Room, keep an eye out. Will ya?"

Hank smelled the scent of anger and disapproval in the air, but lately… He noticed that scent more often around Logan these days… Hank looked at his watch, he said;

"You know it's almost midnight, right?"

"Yeah so?"

"Well some people would maybe like to sleep at these hours..."

"Fine Furrball… I'll make it a short session then."

"What program?" Asked the blue man.

After some seconds of silence, Logan finally gave answer.

"Hpmh. How about 'Program: 666'?

Hank looked up at Logan with a raised eyebrow and noticed the determination on his face.

"Fine, suit yourself, Logan"

"Keep an eye out."

Logan headed in for the training, a female robotic voice spoke;

"WARNING, INITIATING BATTLE SEQUENCE PROGRAM SIX-SIX-SIX"

As Hank watched the program start, he returned to his book.

After 10-15 minutes Hank was still reading….. He tried to take a sip of the-now-very-cold coffee. As he tasted the cold coffee, he instantly spit it out.

"Yuk!" "F#$%'n gross!"

Hank noticed he actually said that out loud. He wasn't the person that sweared often but sometimes, he couldn't help himself.

"Maybe ya should have tried it 4 hours ago, when it was still hot."

Hank was shocked by the voice he heard behind him that he dropped the cup on the floor while turning around. He didn't expect other people to be this late in the Danger Room. As he looked towards the young female, Hank noticed a smell of sadness coming from her.

"Rogue!, I didn't hear you coming in. Why aren't you asleep yet?

Hank wanted the ask 10 more questions, he was cut off by Rogue.

"Now look that ya did, Hank."

Rogue looked down at the ground, looking at the broken cup and spilled coffee on the floor, Hank didn't even notice it at first.

"Ergh. I'll clean it up later."

"Is there something I can do for you, Rogue? You're not the type to just wander in the Danger Room in at night."

"Well maybe..."

Rogue walked towards the windows looking down at Logan's training session. She noticed the 666 battle sequence was active and saw Logan slashing through one of the battle robots. Looking back at Hank, she softly spoke;

"Maybe ya can tell me what's wrong with him these days, He doesn't speak to anyone, just growls at even the least interaction. He didn't show up for HIS OWN training sessions with the students yesterday and this morning. AND he didn't turn up for the movie-night last night. What is wrong with him?"

"You know he's not the movie-watching-type, Rogue."

"No Hank, THIS is different. I KNOW it is."

Rogue gave Hank an angered look, which startled him. He knew she didn't mean that. But HE knew that she knew that he wasn't going to know the answers to her questions either. As Hank stood up next to Rogue he said, "I'm sorry." while trying to make a fake smile on his face.

Rogue noticed it and tried to laugh at it. "Well, Maybe I should say sorry, I already knew that ya wouldn't know, but I had to talk with someone about it."

While Rogue and Hank looked down at the training session still in progress. He said;

"Well, Why don't YOU ask him?"

"Ask him?" She looked with one eyebrow up at Hank.

"You and I both know he's not gonna tell me anyways, Rogue, Logan doesn't share most of his personal issues with us. But I bet he is far more willing it to tell YOU than ME. 'least you could do is just try. Who knows?

"Mhm, Maybe".

Hank and Rogue stood next to each other, Hank noticed the red blinking lights at the control unit.

A robotic female voice said; "BATTLE PROGRAM SIX-SIX-SIX ENDED."

Rogue and Hank looked down through the window towards Logan. They both noticed that he had a wound on his left arm and it wasn't pretty. Logan came out the Danger Room 'somewhat' tired.

"Guess that's it for tonight, huh?"

Logan looked in silence towards the young woman and the fuzzy-blue-man staring at him when he walked in.

"What?"

"Ah…. Logan…." said Rogue looking at the bleeding arm of the wolf-man.

"Ya bleeding all over the floor..."

With a small growl he said, "Yeah, the F$#%'in thing surprised me."

Logan, Rogue and Hank all stood in the control room looking awkwardly at each other and the wounded arm while it stitched itself.

"Impressive, every time." said Hank.

Rogue gave him another angered look.

"Could you clean up the blood, Hank? Looks like you need to clean up your own 'accidents' anyways."

Logan hinted towards the spilled coffee cup on the floor.

"Yeah, sure."

Hank walked towards the supply closet to get something to clean the blood and spilled coffee.

"I'm off, see ya later."

As Logan walked towards the exit, he was followed by Rogue. At the moment Logan was at the door.

"Logan, I want to talk with ya." she said.

Logan stopped and turned towards Rogue.

"Well..? Speak…."

"Privately" said the young women to the obviously angered man in front of her.

With a small growl, he said;

"Maybe later," the angered man wanted to walk out, going back to his own room.

"Logan?"

"LATER." He said with a more aggressive tone.

Rogue was clueless what to do next, as she looked at Hank near the supply closet looking at her. He saw him make a fist and nodding towards Logan. Hank and Rogue both knew that if she wanted answers. she had to be more determined to get them.

Rogue looked back at Logan that was almost out of sight, she took a determined stance and said;

"Logan, I'll be at ya room within 15 minutes, "I WANT TO TALK." Understood?

With an unhealthy growl, Logan left. He knew that she was determined to know what was going on…

* * *

While Hank and Rogue cleaned up the blood and spilled coffee, the blue man said;

"That was a really nice one, Rogue, I bet if someone else tried that they would have gotten an even more angered Logan in their face."

Hank smiled towards Rogue while picking up the broken pieces of the coffee cup.

"Heh, he knows he can't ignore ME."

"No, indeed he can't…"

* * *

Meanwhile at the other side of Xavier's institute, Logan was walking towards his room, in the long hallway, he heard some voices of teenagers still talking in their rooms. He didn't bother to pay attention, he already had enough on his mind. Close to his own room at the far end of the hallway, he noticed Xavier at his door. Apparently he was waiting for him….

"Hello friend, how was the training session?"

Logan knew that he brought attention to himself acting so out of the ordinary, even for him. He wanted to enter the room and just slam the door shut, but as he looked down at the man in the wheelchair, He wasn't ready for another 'therapy session'.

"It was good, Chuck. Just about to get a shower and get some rest."

Logan noticed that Charles was already trying to get into his head, but Logan knew that he was a bit harder to read than others…

"Yes, indeed, you should, but first… I was wondering if you would like to talk about something…"

~ Damn it, ~ thought Logan, he already knew what was bothering him…

"Well Chuck… If ya already read my mind, ya know I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT."

Logan entered his room and shut the door.

Charles wasn't surprised by his reaction. As Charles left and moved past the other rooms, he noticed Ororo standing at the entrance of her own room.

"Any luck yet?"

"No…. I can't help someone that doesn't want to be helped."

Ororo was clearly angered and wasn't a big fan of Wolverine's acting around the students lately.

"That is NO reason for him to act this way."

"Ororo, don't be mad at him, from what I was able to see, he really is troubling with this… and well.. It's actually similar to the 'glass-tank situation'…. "

"Sigh…. Once again haunted by old memories? "

Ororo and Charles were quiet for almost a minute as they heard the silence of the night, Charles looked at the somewhat saddened Storm and said;

"Well he'll open up towards someone soon, I noticed that Rogue is about to talk with him… We'll find out sooner or later…"

"Let's hope so." Said Ororo.

"We've helped him before, Ororo, and we can again. You should try to get some sleep, maybe we can try to help him tomorrow…"

"Yes, I know, Goodnight Charles."

"Goodnight, Ororo."

Ororo walked back into her room and closed the door. Charles headed off as well…

* * *

Rogue and Hank cleaned up the mess and left the Danger Room.

"I'm off too see Logan." said Rogue.

Hank looked at Rogue and saw her determination in her eyes, he could even smell it.

"Alright, Rogue, good luck."

Hank was also wondering why his friend was acting strange and wanted to talk with him about it, but based on the scent he smelled at the man, he decided to sit this one out. Hoping that Charles would be able to help him.

Rogue and Hank left each other in the hallway. Rogue went straight to Logan's room.

The lights were off the hallway, at the end of the hallway she noticed that Logan's room was still open and that the lights were still on. Rogue headed towards the lights. She was about to knock on the door 'till Logan said;

"Come in."

Rogue noticed Logan lying down at his bed with one hand on his eyes. Logan pointed with the other hand at the chair on the right side of his bed. The chair obviously was placed there by himself.

"I'm not here to give ya therapy sessions, Logan. I'm not a psychiatrist. "

"I know, **darlin'**, but I know that you are NEVER gonna stop bothering me until I give you answers, even if I don't want too."

Rogue went to sit down in the chair. It has been a while that Logan called her '**darlin',** He obviously cared for her and didn't want to hurt her feelings.

Rogue took a fierce look at Logan and said,

"So… What's going on?"

By the way Rogue spoke too him, he knew he was done for, 5 minutes ago he still was able to throw her out and slamming the door shut. But now… He smelled the determination from Rogue… He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It took Logan a minute to start talking.

"Some nights ago.. I had a 'dream' … and it ain't a pretty one…."

"What about?"

Logan removed the hand from his eyes and tried to remember, he first tried to suppressed them and force himself to remember them, hurt him, almost physically. Logan growled at the flashing images in his head.

"Logan…. What were the dreams about… Tell me…"

"Well.. That is the problem… I don't know….. exactly…"

"So what CAN you tell me…"

Logan tried to avoid to tell Rogue what the "dreams" were about… He didn't WANT her to know… But he felt the obligation to tell her now… Lost in thoughts with his eyes closed again… He saw the memories before him and growled…Rogue was lightly angered by the silence and loudly said;

"LOGAN! Snap out of it! TELL ME!."

"A F$# 'IN DEAD WOMAN AND A 5-YEAR-OLD CHILD STABBED IN THE HEART ALRIGHT!?"

**SNIKT!**

Logan's claws popped out and went right through his mattress… Rogue widened her eyes and was shocked by the answer given by the angered man that was breathing heavily… Logan noticed that he scared Rogue a bit and tried to back down, as he calmed down, he said;

"I'm sorry…"

"How… When… Why…?" said a scared Rogue in the lounge chair.

"I DON'T KNOW…."

A moment of silence was in the room, Logan unsheathed his claws and the drips of blood that fell beside the bed were the only sounds that were made…. Neither of them made another sound… Not even a breath…

Rogue looked down at the ground, she didn't know what to say… she wanted to leave the man alone, but she couldn't… she just couldn't… She kept looking at the ground, until Logan started talking again…

"The kid… I just see it all the time… I just can't look past it."

Logan told Rogue about the a young boy with brown short hair and brown eyes, he was stabbed in the heart… blood everywhere… And that he just stood there… Looking down at the boy… How he saw the blood… He saw the wounds on this… child… He told her that since then he can't get the image out of his head….

Rogue asked; "Do you know who the...?..." Logan interrupted her before she could finish the sentence.

"NO."

"And now you know WHY, Rogue…"

Rogue was speechless... The only thing she did was stand up, walk towards the bed and hugged the man. She didn't let go for a few minutees and even had to shed a small tear.


	2. Chapter 2: The Wounded Man

Notes: ~this implies thoughts and mental messages.~

Disclaimer and other notes available at the first chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2: The wounded man

* * *

Rogue wandered through the hallways of the Xavier Institute, she still had Logan's story on her mind, for some reason she wondered why THIS particular dream had such an impact on him. With an unease feel, she decided that she needed some fresh air. Usually if Rogue needed some air at night, she would just open the windows on her room, but she didn't want to wake her roommate Kitty, she would just drive her crazy with questions, even if she just wanted to be able to help her fellow teammate, friend and teacher Logan too. It wasn't just her that wondered about Logan, it was almost everyone.

After walking towards the front entrance of the building, she noticed the beeping door-alarms that were enabled. Logan's story still hadn't left her mind for a second, she disabled the alarms and left the building, she felt the cold breeze of the night, she knew she wasn't gonna stay out very long. She figured a quick walk towards the entrance gate and back would be enough. Rogue's mind slipped off during her short walk, she tried to picture the story Logan told her, it saddened her...

~ Brrr... ~ She got goosebumps just thinking about it, maybe it was the cold.. either way she didn't feel well…

~ Well… Guess we just have to do **deal with it**…...~

* * *

Rogue approached the gate, the lights near the gate went on automatically.

~ Finally...~

Rogue wasn't scared of the dark, but it felt comfortable that she was able to see something with the lights on… She heard a faint voice,

"Heh... Heh... Help..." Rogue looked around her.

~What was that? Did I just hear someone? ~

Rogue looked towards the bushes and trees alongside the road, she tried to focus on the sound but she only heard another faint breeze of wind. She must have been imagining it.

~I'm just tired, I should just head back inside.~

Rogue turned back towards the Institute and took a few steps...

"Help... Me...Please..."

Rogue quickly turned back towards the gate.

~Now I definitely heard it! ~

Rogue ran back to the gate trying to sense which direction the voice came from. She looked down the road, the bushes and the trees again and yelled;

"Who's there?!"

Rogue heard the rustling of the bushes, she noticed a dark long figure dragging it self towards the road.

Even due that she was on the other side of the gate, she got more scared with every step the dark figure made. She could feel her own fears by the way she was shaking, she knew that she had to show courage! She was one of the X-Men!

"Don't come any closer!"

The dark figure stopped moving but with small moans and growls it was obvious that who ever was out there was in VERY bad shape. The figure slowly stepped closer to the gates of Xavier's Institute.

Rogue widened her eyes as the dark figure revealed itself in the lights.

"Please... Help me..."

"Oh mah.. GOD!"

Rogue was speechless as she saw a young man with brown hair approach her and the gates. He didn't look very old and she assumed he was just a couple years older than herself.

Rogue gasped when she noticed the dripping blood from the man. He dragged himself to the gates and looked at the scared women behind the safety of the bars... Rogue saw the man's arm that was drenched in blood and bite marks, she watched him collapse to the ground in front of the gates.

Rogue stared for almost a minute to the wounded man, suddenly in a very hastened pace she rolled up her sleeve to reveal a communication device on her wrist. She pressed the red button at it, looked down at the man and screamed at the thing.

"Everyone! Wake up!"

"There is a dying man at the front gates!"

* * *

**IE UWWWWW IEEEE UWWWWW IEEEE UWWWWW!**

An extremely loud siren was heard coming from the Institute, Rogue pulled the gates, opening them. She kneeled down the man and tried to cover her ears at the loud noise. The siren alarmed the whole building and Rogue noticed several lights going on when she took a glance at the institute.

**IEEEE UWWWWW IEEEE UWWWWW!**

Charles instantly woke up by the overwhelming loud noise by the alarm-system. He sensed the distraught emotions of his student Rogue, he held his hands to his head and ears and connected mentally with her.

~ Rogue? What is going on?!~

~ I don't know! There is a wounded man at the front gate! He's covered in blood, He's dy...~

Charles felt the presence of the wounded man near Rogue.

~ Calm down, my child! We're on our way. ~

One of the younger students slammed open the door of Charles bedroom covering his ears.

"What is going on?!"

As Charles watched some more younger students walk in, he connected mentally to everyone in the building.

~Everyone, Rogue found a wounded man at the gates. ~

Charles felt the worried feelings of his teachers and pupils around the whole institute.

~ Everyone CALM DOWN! ~

~ Hank, get to the infirmary and get the medical supplies ready. ~

~ Scott and Jean, Go to the front gates and help Rogue, get him to the Infirmary. quick! ~

~ Logan, turn off the alarm system. ~

~ Everyone else gather with Ororo in the meeting room and wait there. ~

* * *

Logan got out his bedroom door, storming down the hallway running past several students towards the alarm panel near the entrance, covering his ears.

**IEEEE UWWWWW IEEEE UWWWWW!**

~ Damn! Could that alarm be even more louder!? ~

**IEEEE UWWWWW IEEEE UWWWWW!**

The man with the heightened hearing was obviously annoyed by the loud noise. He looked at alarm panel and was hectically searching for a 'disable' or 'turn off' option, after a couple of seconds mashing random buttons he snapped and said;

~ Yeah! I F# $'ing get it stupid alarm! How do I turn this damn thing off?!~

**IEEEE UWWWWW IEEEE UWWWWW!**

"OH, F#%$ THIS! "

**SNIKT!**

Logan unsheathed his claws and slashed right through the alarm panel and after a few seconds, the annoying sound was gone.

~ Finally, give a man a chance t' think...~

Logan took another look at the panel now covered in electric static and smoke.

He saw Jean flying from the hallway and out the front doors, followed by Scott on foot. Scott stopped next to Logan at the entrance, took a quick glance at the control panel and back at Logan.

"What?" growled Logan.

"Never mind that, come on!"

Scott ran out the door, Logan decided to run after him.

* * *

Meanwhile Rogue was still kneeled next to the wounded man at the front gates, she turned him on his back and heard the man moan in pain. Rogue noticed an old backpack next the young man that he dropped in his fall, she took a short glance towards it until she heard more moans of pain, Rogue looked back at the wounded young male.

"Shsh...Ya gonna be OK! Don't worry!"

The young man looked at Rogue showing a very fragile smile.

Jean levitated towards the front gates looking down at Rogue, she landed next to her and widened her eyes in shock at the scene.

"Oh Jean! Thank God!"

Scott and Logan came running towards the gates, they both stared at the man at the ground for almost a minute. Logan suddenly had an extremely unease feeling running over him, a familiar scent came from the wounded fellow on the ground, Logan kept staring at the man, grindin' through his mind trying to find an answer.

~Who is that and why does he smell so familiar?!~ ,

Logan noticed another smell at the man, however this scent…... He knew that stench, staring down at the man he felt deep anger from the inside….

"Hello?! Logan!? Come help me!"

Scott tried to lift the man of the ground, Logan finally snapped out of his thoughts and quickly went to aid him.

"AUWW! " A fierce burst of hurt and discomfort came from the man, he was in tremendous amounts of pain. After several more screams and moans, the man became quiet.

"He passed out." said Jean.

"Damn it, We need a stretcher or something! If we carry him we might do even more damage!" said Scott.

The situation wasn't getting any better, everyone stared down at the man once again and suddenly Rogue yelled;

"Don't just F#%in' stand there! DO SOMETHING!"

Logan, Scott and Jean were shocked by the aggressive tone Rogue took, normally Jean would have scolded her for her language but she didnt. Jean took charge of the situation.

"Don't worry! I got it!"

Jean focused all her mental energy and levitated the wounded man from the ground. Then she levitated herself off the ground and moved towards the entrance and brought the man inside, Scott quickly followed her.

Logan watched a distraught Rogue at her knees on the ground, he smelled the fear, anger and sadness from her. He kneeled before her and held her close to him.

"I… I… I just didn't know what to do….."

"Don't worry, Rogue… Just don't worry….."

A crying Rogue held Logan firmly, the man was lost in his own thoughts. HE had his own questions about this fellow and he was eager to get some answers….

* * *

It was around 2 a.m in the night, everyone except for Charles, Jean and Hank were in the meeting room, It felt like they have been waiting for hours… Some students and even Ororo were slowly drifting off to sleep, however nobody left, everyone wanted what was going on. Several students tried to ask Rogue about what happened but she didn't give any answers…

Rogue sat in one of the lounge chairs in a corner. Every time someone tried to approach her, Logan growled at them to leave her alone. Logan himself was pacing up and down, he wanted to go out and find the people responsible for the wounds on the fellow, there was one particular scent he carried that deeply angered him. Rogue was the one that persuaded him to stay but that was not the only reason. Just like everyone else in the meeting room, HE wanted to know more too.

"I wonder how they are doing…" said Scott.

Ororo noticed the worry in Scott's voice and spoke out.

"They'll be doing fine, don't worry so much…"

"Don't worry!? We don't know a thing about this guy! Do we even know he's not an enemy?!"

Scott's answer brought attention to himself, he looked around and saw mixed expressions at the people in the meeting room.

"Scott, we CANNOT leave wounded people bleed to death alongside the road."

"I know, Ororo. I didn't think about any dangers at first either but the more I just have to keep waiting here, the more I start to worry if we made the right choice."

Ororo looked at her teammate, she felt that he might be right, they don't know a thing about this guy, but her strong beliefs of 'helping others in need' was stronger than that feeling.

"We made the right decision, Scott…"

"Yes indeed, We did make the right decision." spoke a voice coming from the entrance of the meeting room.

Charles entered the meeting room in his wheelchair, Jean was right behind him. Rogue immediately stood up and looked at the Professor, others quickly followed.

"How... how is he? asked one of the younger students before someone else could ask a question.

"Well..We've cleaned up the wounds and stitched up the more sever wounds. It might take days or even weeks before he is fully recovered, however I cannot say that for sure. We discovered that he heals a bit quicker than a 'normal human' but the intensity of that, we don't know."

"So, what? He's a mutant?" said Scott.

"A blood test indeed revealed that his blood is mutated but more that that we don't know yet. We've been so busy with the wounds that we haven't tried to discover more from his mind. Hank is still doing some tests, he mentioned there was something 'strange' about it."

"It's gonna be a long night…." said Jean.

Charles sensed the relief of the people in the meeting room.

"Alright everyone, the best thing you can do is go get some sleep, try not to worry to much about it. Jean and I will try to discover more again and we'll share it once we know more. Goodnight."

Charles and Jean left the meeting room back to the infirmary, the others left for some sleep. Logan was just about to walk out when he saw that Rogue was still standing in the meeting room, looking down at the ground with one hand in front of her face.

"Go get some sleep, darlin'. "

"Yes, Logan, I'll be leaving within a couple of minutes, just lemme get mah head clear."

"Heh, alright, goodnight Rogue."

"Goodnight, Logan."

Rogue watched Logan walk out the meeting room, near the door Logan looked at Rogue and made a small wink at her.

She still had some mixed feelings about the whole situation but she felt better now that she knew that the guy was gonna be alright. She noticed that she was now all alone, she watched around the meeting room and noticed the old backpack of the man on the side of the lounge chair.

She completely forgot that she brought it with her. Rogue walked towards it and opened it. Inside were some old camping supplies, an empty bottle and some other messy stuff. Nothing looked very interesting, however at the bottom she noticed a small frame, wondering what it was. She took it out of the bag and she noticed it was a photo. It was completely covered in dust, she tried to swipe the dust off so she could see the image.

As she looked at the photo… Her eyes widened and for the third time in one evening she was shocked AGAIN...

* * *

Next Chapter: Unexpected answers


	3. Chapter 3: Unexpected Answers

~this implies thoughts and mental messages.~

Disclaimer and other notes available at the first chapter.

* * *

Chapter 3: Unexpected Answers

* * *

It has been over 2,5 hours since the wounded man was brought in at the Xavier Institute. While everyone was sound asleep, there were still some lights on in the laboratory and Infirmary.

"Hmm…..Hmmm…... Interesting…. Very Interesting…."

Hank examined a blood sample of the man brought in earlier, with fascination he witnessed something he never has seen before. Professor Xavier entered the lab moving towards the blue man in a white coat that was staring through a microscope.

"Hank, are you still examining those blood samples?"

Hank lifted his eyes from the microscope looking towards the man in the wheelchair. Hank noticed he looked tired. Charles and Jean have been trying for the last 2 hours to discover more from the wounded man's mind, I clearly took them a lot of energy. However he wasn't the only one tired, Hank was also slowly drifting off to sleep and with a small yawn he spoke;

"Hmmm, this blood sample is truly something marvelous."

"You really should get some sleep Hank, It's almost 5 a.m. The sun is going to rise within a couple of hours."

"I'll be done here soon, Charles. Did you discover anything more about the man? Where's Jean?"

"Jean left a couple minutes ago, she was very tired and mentally drained. She left to get some sleep, figuring that we weren't going to find out more than we already had. We were able to discover his identity, abilities and some memories, however…"

A small silence appeared between the two men looking through the glass window between the Laboratory and the Infirmary staring at the wounded man, now fast asleep.

"However what, Charles?"

The man in the wheelchair was very tired that he spoke very slowly;

"There is so much confusion within the man, he has several deep suppressed memories that we could not access. We could say we're looking at another Logan situation…"

It took Charles a couple of seconds before he continued, with a small yawn he said;

"Anyways, It's very late, Hank. We can talk about this in the morning."

Another small silence appeared between them, Charles looked at Hank and asked;

"Did YOU discover something?"

"Well… There is something interesting about his blood. While examining his blood cells and structure, I discovered that he actually carries a low amount of someone else's blood. Around 5% has a very different structure and carries a lot more white blood cells that the rest. I believe that this is the reason why he's healing faster than others."

Charles looked at Hank in disbelief, how was this even possible? Charles couldn't relate any of the memories he discovered with Jean to what Hank just told him.

"But Charles, It doesn't stop there… Take a closer look at this x-ray I made earlier. "

Charles moved closer towards Hank, they both stared at the x-ray of the left arm of the man, they saw three extra bones in the man's hand that were connected to his carpus. They've seen this before but this was somewhat different.

Charles was very exhausted and without even trying to get the answer from Hank's mind, he asked;

"What is it? Hank."

Hank took a minute to answer, still staring at the X-ray.

"It's a claw, Charles."

* * *

Several hours later...

* * *

It was morning at the Xavier Institute, Scott had planned an early training session with the students that day, however he decided to move the training session to the afternoon due to all that happened last night.

When Scott arrived at the kitchen, he noticed Ororo, Bobby and Kitty were the only ones left. The younger students already left the kitchen and took themselves time to relax now that Scott's early training session was moved. With a loud yawn he walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning Scott! Did Jean already tell you something about that guy from last night? Is he gonna be ok?"

Kitty instantly started firing hundreds at Scott. he wasn't even completely awake and still rubbing his eyes. He got lightly infuriated by Kitty's rapid-fire questions and yelled;

"Kitty!, Jean came back to our room around 4 a.m, she fell asleep within a minute. I haven't had the chance to even ask her anything myself."

"Geez! sorry..."

With a little angered expression, Kitty crossed her arms while she stared at the her cereal bowl in front of her. Ororo stood at one of the counters near the fridge, she grabbed several pieces of fruit and put them in a bowl. She walked towards the table and placed the bowl with fresh fruit on the table.

"We'll get our questions answered soon enough, Kitty."

She went to sit down next to Scott, she offered him an apple from the bowl of fruit, Scott took the apple from Ororo's hand and thanked her. Scott raised the apple towards his mouth, ready to take a bite out of it.

The moment he wanted to take a bite a small smoke cloud appeared above the table that snatched the apple from Scott's hand, and another smoke cloud appeared immediately afterwards.

"Urgh, Kurt!"

" 'Vell hello, mein friends, did z'you miss me?"

The smoke clouds revealed to be Kurt, he reappeared on the other side of the table on one of the chair next to Kitty and Bobby. Kurt took several bites out the apple as his fellow team-members stared at him, wondering why he already came back from his visit to his foster parents.

"Kurt, you're back early. We didn't expect you to return until next week. said Ororo.

"z'I received z'ay phone call from Rogue last night. Zhe told me what happened, Rogue asked Kurt 'o get back to ze Institute.. "

"WHHAAATTT!" yelled an infuriated Kitty, knocking over her half-eaten bowl of cereal onto Bobby.

"KITTY!"

"Why did she tell YOU?!, I'm her roommate for christ's sake! She didn't even talk to me! Urgh! "

For a short moment everyone stared at Kitty, Ororo and Scott took an irritated look for the mess she made from her breakfast. Bobby, who has been unusually quiet for the last couple of minutes got angered by the way Kitty was yelling and that she drenched his clothes in milk and cereal…. he said;

"Don't be so dramatic Kitty, Course she didn't tell! You would've kept her awake all night askin' her a gazillion questions she wouldn't have an answer to anyways."

"Oh shudd' up, Bobby!"

Once again an infuriated Kitty crossed her arms and stared back at her knocked-over bowl of cereal and kept mumbling. Everyone looked at her from the way she acted, Kurt quickly changed the subject.

"Z'anyways…. How is z'e man doing now, Scott?"

"I don't know, Jean is probably still asleep and I haven't seen Hank of the Professor yet."

"No Scott, I'm awake. Good morning everyone. Oh Kurt, It's good to see you're back too."

Jean entered the kitchen, walking past the counters and went to sit next to Scott, she raised her arm around his shoulder and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Jean looked at her fellow teammates and noticed that everyone was staring at her. She already knew why, so before someone could even ask a question. She said;

"I know, I know, you all want to know what the Professor and I discovered last night so let's see where to begin…"

The room was filled with silence as everyone wanted to hear every word Jean was going to say, Jean sensed that on the outside of the kitchen's backdoor, Logan was eavesdropping the conversation through the small window.

He wasn't the only one spying, Rogue was listening in on the conversation too, she was standing just outside one of the other doors in the kitchen. Jean wondered why Rogue didn't just enter the kitchen...

"Well, lets see…"

"His name is **Max**, the professor and I think he's around 24 years old, we do not know exactly. Based of his memories we learned that he's been traveling around for some time and that he was actually looking for the Institute. He's also looking for someone else, however the identity of this person we couldn't discover yet. During his travels he's been attacked and stalked multiple times, the last time was actually very recently before Rogue discovered him at the front gates.

"So… Who was attacking him?" asked Bobby.

Jean became quiet for a minute, wondering herself if she even wanted to tell them. She sensed Logan who was still behind the kitchen's backdoor. He was fiercely angered, she sensed that he was waiting for her confirmation... Apparently he knew already.

"It was Sabertooth."

"SABERTOOTH?" several voices spoke simultaneously.

Outside Logan heard the Jean's answer, he got more angry by the second.

~ I knew it! I F#$ 'ing knew it! It WAS Sabertooth! ~

The first thing he wanted to do was get on his motorcycle, ride out the front gates and find the bastard, but something told him that he had to keep listening….

"We don't know why Sabertooth attacked him, maybe he... maybe he just came across him or something. I don't know."

Another minute of silence appeared in the room as everyone stared at Jean, nobody really knew what to say, suddenly Ororo spoke;

"What about his abilities? "

Jean took a deep breath before she started talking.

"Mhmm.. Let me see if I can get this straight."

"Max seems to have at least two abilities that the professor and I are aware of… He can '**see' what people fear** and '**sense' their personal issues... **however it is not as simple as that.**"**

**"**Oh great, another one to poke around in our minds…" said Bobby, he quickly got interrupted by Kitty.

"Bobby, shut it! I'm trying to listen!

"His second ability is somewhat harder to explain."

Jean took another deep breath and after a couple of seconds, she continued her explaination.

"**He can bond with other mutants."**

"He what?" asked Scott.

**"**Well, upon physical contact, he can form a connection with someone, he can increase their strengths by converting their negative feelings or emotions into strength for himself and the participant in the connection... Isn't that about right, Professor?"

Everyone quickly turned towards the door where the Professor appeared in his wheelchair, followed by Hank.

"Yes, Jean, it's something like that."

"Wait I don't get it, convert negative feelings? what does that even mean?" asked a confused Kitty.

" I don't get z'it either, Professor…" said Kurt.

Obviously Jean's explanation didn't make enough sense. Kurt, Bobby, Scott and Kitty we're looking confused at each other, after a short minute of silence and confusion, Charles spoke;

"Have I ever told you before that It's our **own fears, our own doubts and our own personal issues** that **limit******** ou**r powers?

"Yes, Professor, but how is that related to this?" asked Scott.

"Well.. If this man makes **physical contact** with someone, he can **form a connection** between him and whoever he touches. While 'bonded' he can extract negative energy temporarily from you, like your fears, doubts and issues and 'replace' them with positive energy, **increasing your strength, endurance and mutant abilities.** Besides that **he takes a fragment of the abilities** with whomever he's connected with."

A silence filled the room as everyone was trying to process what the Professor just told them.

"I think I get it now… " said Kitty.

"Sounds pretty awesome if you ask me! Someone that can boost our powers. I would love to see it!" said Bobby.

Bobby was clearly very enthusiastic about the man's powers and was eager to get a demonstration, but down the hallway there was someone else less enthusiastic.

Rogue heard every single word of the conversation, she just spied on her friends. That didn't gave her a good feeling, she could've just walked in... Rogue was carrying the small frame she found last night in the backpack… She was lost in thoughts about the man's abilities.

~ Increase their strength, endurance and mutant abilities… at physical contact? ~

Rogue looked down the gloves she always had to wear, she thought about her own powers and felt a bit jealous at the man she found last night at the front gates. She had an unease feel crawling over her, she has felt this before when her powers first had manifested. She felt that she was cursed and hearing that someone else had a power that was like the opposite.. She didn't feel well thinking about it, she quickly focused her attention back the conversation.

" I still don't get why he was attacked by Sabertooth..." said Scott.

Rogue knew that she had to show the picture, she knew that Logan wouldn't be happy about that but she felt like she had no other choice. Rogue walked in the kitchen, she noticed that everyone stared at her as she held the frame firmly against her chest.

"I think ya might wanna take a look at this…..I found it in his backpack. "

Rogue walked towards the others and placed the photo frame down on table, almost everyone stood up and got closer to the picture frame to see what was on the photo.

It was a black-and-white photo with 4 people on it. On the far left there was an woman with dark hair and a faint smile. In the center there was a child, he looked around 4 or 5 years old. The third man held his hand on the woman's shoulder. As everyone looked at the photo an uneasy silence filled the room…

"Wait, z'is that, Logan?!" yelled Kurt out loud.

Nobody could believe their eyes, why was Logan on that photo? Who are those other people? Once again they all had thousands of questions.

"It looks like this was once his family or something…." said Ororo.

Another small silence appeared in the kitchen, nobody really knew what to say. Suddenly Jean said;

"But who's the little boy? asked Kitty.

Rogue remembered the dreams Logan told her about. She figured that this boy was the one from Logan's dream.

"I think it might be him…." said Rogue.

"So what? He's Logan's son or something?" asked Scott.

**"No, he's not, however there is something else. That man does have a small amount of Logan's blood running through his veins, I don't know how... but it would explain the healing factor and the claw…."**

"CLAW?"

Everyone looked at Hank, wondering what he just said, the whole situation caused for confusion between everyone in the room. Hank noticed he was being stared at. It didn't take long for him to continue with his answer.

"It seems like that this ma…"

**BAAAAMMM!**

Logan slammed the door open fiercely, everyone shocked and panicked by the aggression the man carried with him. Logan walked towards the table, making a small growl, he snatched the photo off the table and stared at the image for a moment…

"Logan?"

Ororo walked towards him, putting her hand on his shoulder. she saw him stare at the fourth person on the picture and got lightly scared by the small growls he made at the photo, suddenly he threw the photo into Ororo's hands, turned around, walked out the door and slammed the door shut.

"Logan, wait!" yelled Rogue reaching out for the man that stormed out the kitchen backdoor.

Rogue wanted to run after Logan but was stopped by Charles with a mental message;

~ Rogue, stop. Let him **deal with it** on his own for now….. ~

* * *

Next chapter: Sharp as a knife

* * *

Wo! Finally some details about the guy! Next chapter there will be a small example of Max's abilities and something else **VERY interesting... **Stay tuned!


	4. Chapter 4: Sharp as a Knife

~this implies thoughts and mental messages~

** * This implies visions or anything mentioned about abilities. ***

* * *

Chapter 4: Sharp as a knife

* * *

"If you think that growling in people their faces will get you ANY answers then you are VERY WRONG, Jim! Or Logan, whatever I have to call ye now!"

"Now listen here, Bub!"

**"SHAKT! SNIKT!"**

**….**

The silence of the night filled the room as the blood dripped on the wooden floor. Both frozen solid as if time had frozen itself. No breath, not even gasp was heard, if all the life was sucked out of them. They both stared as if they had no soul, like they were just- empty shells. A feeling unlike anything else, like they were the same but still quite different.

She who entered the room watched in horror and saw the two men collapse to the ground, covered in each others blood…

...

* * *

12 hours earlier

* * *

Three days have passed since the wounded man was brought in at the Institute. All the details of the man that were discovered by Jean and Professor Xavier went like a burning fire through the Institute. Everyone knew, but there were still so many questions left...

The younger students wondered what Logan had to do with it all, however there were two things that stopped everyone from asking him any questions. First he didn't know a thing more than them and even if he did, the only thing they would receive is an angered growling man in their face, hoping that he didn't pull their head off in the progress.

But there was another reason, the man in question was no where to be found. Since the revealing conversation in the kitchen three days ago, he was gone. Nobody was really worried as everyone knew that it wasn't the first time that Logan just 'took off.'

Still in of the hallways of the Institute, there was a young woman utterly worried….

* * *

It was around 10 in the morning when Rogue walked through one of the hallways of the Institute, she just came back from her breakfast and wanted to catch up on some of the missed sleep of last night. The last three days she almost hadn't slept a minute. The flashes of the wounded man by the gates, Logan's dreams, the photo in the backpack, everything mixed together into a horrible nightmare every time she tried to get some sleep. Her roommate Kitty wasn't happy with it either.

Last night they had an argument which ended with Kitty sleeping in one of the guestrooms. She felt horrible for calling Kitty a "Selfish bitch." Jean already gave Rogue hell about it during breakfast, still they both knew that she didn't mean it. Jean was more angered at her that she didn't ask her or the professor for any help.

Rogue approached the room that she shared with Kitty, she heard some music and some awful singing from the inside. She was hoping that Kitty wasn't mad by what happened last night. She took a long breath in and entered the room.

_"Fascination! Fascination, It's just the way we feel! Yeah!"_

Rogue noticed Kitty wearing her headphone, she was facing the other side. She didn't notice Rogue enter but when she closed the door behind her, Kitty quickly turned around, startled by Rogue's entrance.

"Oh, It's you..."

Kitty immediately looked away and turned off the music, clearly she hadn't forgiven her... Rogue walked towards her own side of the room and looked out the window.

Something that she was mildly afraid of happened…. 'An awkward silence…'

Kitty noticed Rogue looked out the window, she really hadn't anything to say to her. She wasn't REALLY mad at her but she at least wanted an apology. She made up a stupid excuse to leave the room.

"I have to go find Kurt, I'll see you later.

"Wait, Kitty..."

Rogue turned towards Kitty that looked ready to phase out the door, Kitty looked at Rogue and by the look on her face she knew that the apology was on its way.

"I wanted to tell ya... I'm sorry about ah.. last night…"

Kitty didn't speak for a short minute, suddenly she walked towards the window and stood next to her.

"It's ok, Rogue. I knew you didn't mean it…"

Both young women crossed their arms and stared out the window, Kitty and Rogue were pretty lucky with the room they had. It had a remarkable view and they were able to see the front gates of the Institute.

At the moment that they both looked at the entrance gates, they noticed a figure on a motorcycle move towards the gates. The gates opened and the figure moved in the direction of the garage.

"Oh, Logan is back! " said Kitty;

She watched the man ride the motorcycle into the garage, when she looked up from the window. Kitty noticed that Rogue was gone from the room...

* * *

Rogue ran as fast as she could towards the garage, she ran down towards the front entrance. When Logan entered the front doors, she stopped in front of him.

"You're back! Where have ya been?!"

Rogue saw the angered face of the man and noticed several small cuts in his clothes. Logan walked past her as if she was a ghost, completely ignoring her. Rogue kept calling his name as the man walked up the stairs to his room.

Ororo, who heard the noise all the way from the kitchen quickly flew up the stairs following the two.

"Logan!"

Rogue kept calling his name multiple times, the closer Logan got to his room the louder she started yelling his name. Logan approached his room, opened the door and slammed it shut. Leaving the distraught girl standing in front of the door...

"Logan!"

Rogue started slamming on the door calling his name to get his attention. Ororo noticed small tears as she approach the girl at the door, and after several minutes Rogue stopped trying. She was out of breath and knew it would be useless to try any longer….

"Rogue, leave him alone for now, He's back and that's what matters most."

* * *

Meanwhile

* * *

"Urgh… McCoy, Do I have to?"

"Yes, Bobby. As punishment for that 'stunt' in last nights training, you are going to help me in the lab today."

"In the lab!? Can't I just go clean the jet or something?!"

"Remember last time you had to clean The X-Jet? Mister Drake?"

Bobby walked the 'walk of shame' following his teacher to the lab, out of all the possible punishments or chores that he could've given him, he gave him the most boring task ever, helping in the lab... Bobby hated that he would be stuck all-day handing the blue man small bottles and watch him stare though a microscope.

Hank walked around 10 feet in front of him. As they passed the infirmary they saw the wounded man still sleeping. Bobby asked;

"Any idea when he'll wake up?"

Hank sighed and said; "The wounds were very bad, Bobby. But he'll wake up sooner or later…"

"I hope so, It's not getting any easier up there…"

Hank turned around at Bobby, noticing he was pointing upwards. He knew that the Iceman was hinting at Rogue and Logan…Hank tried to talk with Rogue two days ago but it didn't do any good, he worried about about her mental state.

On Logan on the other hand, he wasn't worried. Figuring he had just to smash a couple of bad mutants to the face to get his cool back. He wasn't very fond of that, but he knew that he couldn't AND wouldn't stop him anyways.

Hank checked in every few hours on the man, yesterday he noticed a small bit of consciousness in the man, however when he tried to ask him any questions he was out again, figuring that he would have to try later.

Hank and Bobby entered the lab next to the infirmary, the two rooms were separated with a glass wall. Bobby and Hank were able to see the wounded man sleep on one of the infirmary beds still hooked to one of those "beeping-machines" as Bobby would've described them.

Hank went to sit at one of his lab desks after ordering Bobby to wear one of the white coats. Bobby put on the white coat while he looking through the glass window, as he stared at the man he said;

"I wonder what he's been through..."

Hank looked over his shoulder towards his younger student, seeing that Bobby had his arms crossed and was staring a bit awkwardly towards the man.

"Maybe we can recruit him for the team, what do you think Mister McCoy?"

Hank didn't answer his questions, he hoped that he didn't make a mistake with this so-called-punishment. Bobby was someone that couldn't keep his mouth shut, Hank hoped that he wouldn't be asking him every question that came up in that head of figured that if he didn't keep quiet, that he could always try to growl in his face 'till he shut up.

Hank started preparing for his research.

"Bobby, get me the the valve with the DARK blue sticker on inside that cabinet over there."

Bobby was still staring at the wounded man through the glass window, once he heard the McCoy's command he walked towards the cabinet. When he opened it, he noticed small valves and bottles next to each other all with different colored stickers on them. It looked like a rainbow to him, he reached in to grab the dark blue valve and asked;

"Why does it look like a frickin' rainbow in there?"

When Hank heard that question he didn't know what to answer as he didn't really understand what the Iceman meant.

~ 'Rainbow'? What was that supposed to mean? ~

When he turned around he saw Bobby reaching in the cabinet, and after a few seconds he understood what the boy was hinting at.

"Fairly easy, Bobby. I've color-coded them. "

"Why?"

"I just asked you for the blue valve right? Would you have found if it I asked you to get me a bottle of Liquid Hydrogen?"

"Ah.. No, I don't think so…"

"Well there is your answer, Bobby."

When Bobby handed Hank the blue valve, he went back to the cabinet looking at the valves and bottles. With fascination he checked out all the different bottles and valves. Hank heard the valves and glasses hit each other softly, he noticed that Bobby was kind of enjoying this by the scent he made. He was more hoping for a scent of desperation and boringness... He really should have left the punishments up to Scott. ._.

However he thought;

~ Maybe he'll learn something from it.. That's valuable too...~

When he noticed that Bobby was making more noise by the second, he said;

"Bobby, some of those bottles are highly dangerous, You wouldn't like it if you were blown to pieces by breaking the wrong one, would you?

The iceman was lightly shocked from the blue man's reaction and decided to close the cabinet before his 'fooling around' would cause another 'accident'.

As he closed the cabinet he looked through the glass window again towards the man, noticing that the man was tilting his head as if he was waking up.

"Mister McCoy.."

"Yes, Bobby?"

"Look!" - Bobby pointed at the man on the other side of the glass window, however Hank was to distracted with looking through his microscope."

"Bobby, be quiet please, I'm busy."

"Mister McCoy, LOOK!"

Hank got angry by the way the boy was trying to get his attention. Normally he would have looked the first time when someone asked for his attention, but with Bobby?... You never knew for sure...

"Bobby, if you don't shut up I'll let Scott finish your punishment!"

"HANK! LOOK!"

"..."

"LOOK!"

"FUCK OFF, Bobby!"

Hank had lost his temper for a moment staring at Bobby as if he would eat him there alive on the spot, Bobby himself wasn't even paying attention to the blue-man's expression. He was still pointing at the glass window towards the wounded man.

"He's waking up! "

When Hank got is cool back he watched through the glass window at the wounded man, noticing he was moving his arms. He and Bobby both stared at the wounded man as he moved with his hand across his face and was trying to sit straight up. After a few seconds the man opened his eyes and looked straight at their faces. He noticed them staring at him for a couple of second before watching them both run out the laboratory and into the Infirmary.

* * *

"Where, Where am I?"

"You're at the Xavier Institute for gifted youngsters. You're safe here."

"Thank god... I made it." said the man that now had his hands on his face.

Hank and Bobby both stared at each other strange after the man's answer, the man opened his eyes and saw the blue-man up close, he lightly shocked at his feral appearance but sensed he was of no harm. However there was something else...

*** He stared the man into he eyes, he saw flashes in his head. A vision of an uncontrollable beast killing a young child. Ferociously biting it and slashing it's skin off. A blue monster destroying the city as he heard people scream in terror, running for their lives... ***

He was able to see the blue-man's biggest fear. A gift both blessed and cursed, being able to see what he could become, but also being able to prevent it. The flashes caused a light headache.

He quickly took his eyes off the blue-man and took a glance at the younger boy besides him. He didn't look as intimidating as the feral one next to him. He saw the smile on the boy's face, he looked him in the eyes and another flash in his head appeared.

*** He saw a vision a man of ice, without emotion, unable to feel the warmth of friendship or love. Afraid of turning into a bitter cold person, without any compassion or feelings. ***

As the vision disappeared he saw the boy smile once again, it was hard for him to believe that this boy would have such a fear on the inside...

The man wanted to get out of the bed, he moved on side of the bed, seeing the wounds on his legs and arms. Most of them were healed, some were still very fresh. The man stared for a minute at his left arm, which was noticed by the blue-man and the younger boy. He felt the urge to stand up but was stopped by the blue man watching over him, he said;

"Maybe you should slow down, you just woke up."

"I... I think I'll be alright..."

"Bobby, go get the professor, tell him that th"

"No need, Hank. I'm already here."

Before Hank could finish he sentence he was interrupted by Charles. The man on the side of the hospital bed saw an older man in a wheelchair enter the infirmary and approach him, he was intrigued by his appearance and confidence. * **When he looked him in the eyes, he saw nothing. *** He was unable to sense anything within the man.

~ Has this man no fears? How is that that possible? ~

The man has had this sensation before, within some people he couldn't sense anything... This bothered the man, the visions usually let him take a peek into the mind of whoever he's dealing with but he didn't see a thing. A minute of silence appeared as the man in the wheelchair looked at the wounded man on the side of the infirmary bed.

"Hello, Maxwell. My name is Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the school for gifted youngsters. This is one of my teachers, Henry McCoy, otherwise known as Hank or 'Beast'. This young man is Bobby Drake, otherwise known as 'Iceman', he is one of my younger students. You are safe here, how are you feeling?"

"Thank you, professor Xavier, I'm feeling 'OK', As good as someone in this state could be I guess."

"Good, shall we have a tour around then?"

"Huh?!"

"Well If you wish to stay here, Maxwell. You should be get to know our other teachers and students, wouldn't you?"

Max was stunned by what Professor Xavier asked him, he was being recruited out of the blue! It was true that he had nowhere else to go. He indeed searched very long for a place to call home, however something was still itching him. He had an ulterior motive to finding this Institute, He knew that Professor Xavier was a powerful telepath, he hoped that he could help him discover something of his long lost past.

"Alright then."

Max tried to stand up from the infirmary bed, supported by Hank on the left side and Bobby on the other side. He felt waves of dizziness and nausea inside himself. After a short minute his head was clear again. He took his first steps since the incident several days ago. It felt as if he needed to learn how to walk again... After a couple of steps Hank and Bobby let him go. He was able to walk on his ow again.

Maxwell was about the same height as Bobby, the only difference was that he had some more muscles and for a 22 or 23-year old he had a bit more body hair than someone of that age. He had medium-short brown hair and matching eyes, a slim face with a small scar above his right eyebrow. He also had a short stubble beard making him look more masculine that the puny young Iceman besides him.

"Good."

"Bobby, please show the man were he can find the showers, and get him some new clothes. Afterwards bring him to the kitchen. We'll start the tour there with an early lunch."

~ A hot shower, clothes and a lunch? It's been so long... ~ thought the man by himself.

* * *

30 Minutes later...

* * *

It was around 11.15 when Ororo and Kurt were in the kitchen, Charles joined them not very long ago. Ororo and Kurt were baking all kinds of different pancakes for the lunch. It was still a bit early but Charles intended to get the new man some peace and quiet instead of wild and questioning young students breathing down his neck.

Bobby and Max entered te kitchen. They hit it off pretty well by the noise they were making on their way to the kitchen, with a laugh that could be heard all over the Institute. Max looked around himself and thought to himself;

~ Wow, that's one big kitchen. ~

Max saw the Professor in his wheelchair on the outerside of the kitchen table. At the stove he saw a women with beautiful white hair and a blue demon-looking young adult with a pointy tail. The young man disappeared in a smoke cloud and reappeared in front of him.

"Vell, Hello mine frieund. My name iz't Kurt, also known a 'Nightcrawler.' '"

"Uh!"

Max made a small step backward, widening his eyes as the man appeared in front of his face. He saw the smile on the man's face and sensed a good heart underneath that Demon-looking appearance.

**When Max looked him in the eyes, he was able to see a vision. He saw the young man running through the streets of 'what it looked like' an old German settlement... He saw pitchforks and burning torches. He heard people scream; "Kill the demon!" "Kill the freak!" Max stood in the middle of a road with a dead end. He saw the blue and scared, young-adult run and being unable to escape as a group of settlers with pitchforks and burning torches closed in on him. The vision ended as the blue-boy screamed for his life… **

~ Afraid of being judged by his appearance… ~

He felt sorry for poor guy. But when he saw the smile on the boy's face, he couldn't help but to smile back. He knew that he wouldn't be judged here and neither by Max himself.

"This is Kurt Wagner, one of the second-grade students. He has the ability to teleport. "

"Wow, that's pretty unique."

The young adult disappeared in another small smoke cloud and returned next to the woman near the stove. The woman looked up and walked towards Max.

"This is Ororo Munroe, otherwise known as Storm, she can control the weather. She's one of my best teachers and keeps things at bay here with the younger students..."

The woman had a bright smile on her face, which he returned with a similar smile on his, however it didn't last long…

*** As the woman looked the man into the eyes, he saw her being locked inside a small dark box... Banging on the sides and pushing trying to get out. ***

~ Claustrophobia... ~

*** This vision was a bit different, he saw the eyes of the woman starting to glow and her white hair levitate. As the black box around her started to enclose her further, he heard her scream; **"NO! I WILL BE FREE!".** With an electric shock forced from he hands, he saw the black box around her evaporate into thin air... ****The woman flew high into the sky and the vision ended. ***

~ The woman has dealt with several of her personal issues. ~

~ That's one bad-ass woman….~

"Pleasure to meet you, Max. "

The man kept staring into her eyes, mesmerized by the vision he just witnessed. It took several seconds before Max noticed that she was talking to him.

"Uhhh... Oh! ... It's a pleasure to meet you too."

"Would you like something to eat? Kurt and I are baking pancakes, would you care for one?"

"I'd love to, thank you."

With a big smile, Ororo walked back towards Kurt next to the stove. Max looked towards the professor and noticed him pointing towards the chair next to him at the kitchen table. As he went to sit down, he was quickly followed by Bobby.

After only a couple minutes of silence, Kurt and Ororo turned towards the table, they both carried a plate with a small pile of pancakes on top of them. A delicious smell filled the kitchen, they went to sit down at the table putting down the piles of pancakes. Max took a quick glance on everyone at the table, the professor on his left side, Bobby on his right, Ororo sat in front of him and across Bobby sat Kurt.

Everyone noticed Bobby gleaming at the pancakes, he was almost drooling...

"Awe yeah! Pancakes! I love them!"

Bobby reached out at one the piles, trying to take at least one of the pancakes before he could even touch one of the pancakes he was interrupted by Ororo.

"Bobby! Guests first!"

Bobby backed down as he stared at the mildly angered Ororo, which cause a bit of an awkward silence... Ororo took the plate in front of Max and put two pancakes on it, placing the plate back in front of him with a bright smile. She nodded towards Bobby, he snatched within seconds two pancakes from the the plate in front of him, ready to devour them.

After Charles, Ororo and Kurt were supplied as well, Ororo said;

"Bon appétit!"

* * *

Several minutes had passed and everyone was done eating. The smell of pancakes and fresh maple syrup still lingered in the air. it has been a while since Max had eaten something so delicious.

"Do you enjoy it?"

"Oh yes, It was delicious! Thank….."

** "BAM!"**

Suddenly the kitchen's backdoor smashed open. An angered man of unimpressive height and sideburns entered the room. Growling as he entered the kitchen, while walking towards the refrigerator the man kept glancing towards Max. The intimidating look and mild growling startled Kurt and Bobby, and even Ororo for a little bit.

Silence filled the kitchen as everyone stared at the man as he took a bottle out of the kitchen.

**"SNIKT!"**

The man popped out one of his claws to remove the bottle's cap. He stared at the new man, growling mildly. Max stared back at him and returned the intimidating look on the man. Max sensed something strange, a certain smell felt familiar, the face also looked familiar… He knew that man...

He stared into the eyes of the growling mutant, and a vision emerged...

*** He felt himself stuck inside a water tank made out of glass, he saw people in laboratory clothes stare at him, smiling as if they had stolen candy from a child. He felt a burning pain in his arms and legs. Something unlike anything he's felt before... **

**Suddenly he was on the outside of the glass tank, but this time the man he just saw was inside. The man screamed and yelled in terror, he could feel his pain even from outside of the tank. His left arm felt like it was on fire! He even started to scream himself, the immense pain this man has been through... Max fell to his knees holding his burning left arm. He looked up seeing the man scream in pain as he was being injected with a silver liquid. When he looked at his face, he recognized him… And moments before the vision ended he thought to himself; ***

~ "Jim…. What have they done to you..." ~

Suddenly everything went to black...

**BAM!**

* * *

"Max? Max! Are you alright?!"

When Max was back in reality, he saw Bobby and Ororo standing over him. Apparently he fell off his chair by the intensity of the vision, Bobby helped him back on his chair. Max had his eyes covered with his left hand, that vision caused him one heavy headache...He moved his hand and his eyes tried to adjust to the lighting in the room. As the kitchen reappeared he looked frantically around himself looking for the angered man.

"Where's Jim...?"

Kurt, Ororo and Bobby stared at the man with widened eyes. All 3 of them had the same thoughts;

~ Who's Jim? ~

Professor Xavier sensed the vision Max had about the man and send him a mental message...

~ That was Logan, otherwise known as The Wolverine, you passed out when you looked into his fears…. He's been through very much, he's lost a large amount of his memories himself... even I sometimes have trouble with his mind. ~

"I….. I need to speak with him…"

Max tried to get up as he covered his eyes again due to the headache.

"No, Maxwell. We'll talk about it later, there are still some things you don't know yet, but first we finish our tour through the mansion."

* * *

3 hours later…

* * *

After the Professor showed Max the Danger Room, the Laboratory, the X-Jet and the garage, their tour ended at the the back side of the mansion.

"So what do you think, Maxwell?"

Max was truly fascinated by everything he'd seen, however he still had the angered man whom he now had to identify with the name 'Logan' on his mind. He tried to remember back to his past... it was futile. The quick flashes of lost and suppressed memories he tried to conjure caused him a yet another small headache... The man rubbed his eyes and forehead with his head down towards the ground.

The professor sensed that his thoughts were somewhere else. With a quick peek into his mind he saw the flashes of memories that caused the man a headache.. Flashes of the woods, flashes of a small cottage and flashes of a man and a woman. He recognized the man and suddenly he spoke;

"Here at the Xavier Institute, mutants like ourselves, help and care for each other. I would like you to consider staying here, together we might be able to figure out your lost past. "

Max looked at the professor, the faint smile on his face made clear that he'd agree with him and would love to stay here at the institute.

"We'll start tomorrow, we still have to prepare a room in the institute for you."

After a small moment, he heard the faint laughter of children and teenagers. He looked around him he noticed a basketball field on the left. He saw several young people moving and jumping around, he heard people on the benches at the sidelines cheer for for the noticed the professor move with his wheelchair towards the basketball field. He saw him wave with his hand, indicating him to follow.

They approached the basketball field, the closer they came, the louder the laughter and cheering became, It felt rejuvenating, but once they were only a few feet away from the field did that laughter disappeared... One of the younger students noticed the professor and the man approach.

"Look!"

As Max and the Professor entered the basketball field, it became quiet... The students stopped playing and the people on the sidelines stood up. Everyone had gathered together and moved towards Max and the Professor.

"Students, I would like you to meet, Maxwell. He'll be staying with us from now on. "

Max looked at the group that gathered together in front of him, he recognized several faces. He noticed, Hank, Bobby, Ororo and Kurt were with the group, at the far end at the group, he noticed a young woman. She had beautiful auburn-brown hair with a unique whit streak in it...

She was staring at the ground with her arms crossed, she was trying to hide herself unlike the rest of enthusiastic students. She took a short glance at him, trying to avoid full eye-contact and suddenly stared back at the ground. Max noticed that, suddenly he spoke;

"You… You're the one who found me, aren't you?"

The young woman stepped forward, her head was still faced down to the ground... An awkward silence appeared at the basketball field as everyone either stared at the women or at Max. When she appeared before him, he looked him in the eyes and said;

"Yes."

*** When she looked him in the eyes, the man expected another vision, but once again he saw nothing… ***

Intrigued by the young woman's appearance, he stepped a bit closer and said;

"Thank you for rescuing me, can I know your name?"

"My name is Rogue, pleasure to meet you."

~ Rogue… Such an unusual name... ~ thought the man to himself.

The young woman quickly stepped back towards the group, Max was still looking into her eyes…

~ Hmmm.. She's not a telepath like Xavier but why can't I see anything…? Strange… ~

A moment of silence appeared, suddenly Professor Xavier said;

" Well Maxwell, shall we go back inside? We still need to prepare a room for you…"

"Yes we should."

As Max and Xavier got ready to leave some noise was made between several of the students, they were whispering. Max noticed Bobby was with them too, suddenly he spoke;

"Professor. We were wondering about Max's 'powers'…."

Bobby quickly turned his look from Xavier to Max, stepping closer to him, and said;

"Can we see your abilities, Max?"

Max quickly looked away from the boy, apparently nobody except the Professor had noticed he's been using his first gift this whole time. However his second gift was the most intriguing. Max took a quick glance towards Xavier, by the smile on his face he could sense as if he was going to say;

~ "It's your choice." ~

"Please?"

Max was being stared at by the younger students and Bobby, even the others were wondered about his gifts and loved to see it in action. It felt he was almost pressured to show his ability...

"Well… My gift is pretty… how do you call it? 'Different?'…. It's hard to explain…"

"The Professor tried to explain it 3 days ago but most of us didn't really get it…."

"Heh... Alright then."

Max stepped towards the center of the basketball field, he stood still in the middle. He noticing that everyone was spreading across the sidelines to get a good view on him. Suddenly he spoke;

"Bobby, Can I borrow you for a moment?"

"What, me?"

"Well, you wanted to see my ability, didn't you?

"Ahh… Yes… uhh… kinda..."

"Well then, get over here!"

Bobby stepped forwards to the center of the basketball field, he stood across the man. He was wondering what was going to happen, and after a few seconds, the man said;

"My 'gift' is to increase the power of others by forming a connection with them."

The man held out his right hand and said;

"Once Bobby here, touches my hand, we'll form a connection, I like to call it a "psychic bond". I get a certain amount of his own abilities and in return I can increase his powers to a higher potential."

"Ohhh..."

Max heard the people on the sidelines whisper, he even noticed some were a bit jealous that he man chose Bobby as a 'test-subject'. Max held his hand out towards Bobby, indicating he had to touch him. He took a quick glance to Rogue and said;

"Is it going to hurt?!"

Once again he took a quick glance towards Rogue, who looked at him as if she would kill him right there on the spot. Bobby got lightly startled by the look and quickly returned his attention to Max, who was still waiting for Bobby...

With a smile on his face, he said;

"Heh, No it won't… Are you afraid?"

"Uhhhh… No…."

"Well… then…We're waiting, Bobby!…" said one of the younger students on the sidelines.

"Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!"

On the sidelines several students were cheering for Bobby. After several seconds, he finally got his courage and grabbed the man's hand. When he took his hand, Bobby saw the man's eyes glow faintly blue and felt as if all the trouble of the world just vanished….

*** The vision of the soulless Iceman reappeared once again, however it was changing now….. He saw everything around him turn into ice. He felt an organic layer of ice covering his whole body. Even due that everything was turned to ice around him. It didn't feel cold... The ice glittered, as if it sparkeled in the sunlights. It felt enlightening… Carefree… Genuinely speaking, it felt GOOD. ***

~ Wow! What's going on! ~

As Max let go of the boy's hand, he heard faint thoughts... When he looked at himself he saw that he was completely covered in an organic layer of Ice, looking towards the boy, he saw had the same thing going on too...

~ Well.. Guess I know now why they call him 'The Iceman'…. ~

"WHO SAID THAT?! "

~ Oh great…. Bobby relax, you can hear my thoughts now…. ~

~ Huh? Wow, that's cool… ~

Everyone on the sidelines looked with astonishment, as they didn't now see one 'Iceman', but two.

Max raised his hands in the air as they faintly glowed blue, his hands released a light blue aura... the released energy surrounded the entire area.

Bobby felt as if he just drank 6 bottles of energy drink, but it was more than that!

*** He didn't worry about his fears or that he sometimes felt under-appreciated by others, those feelings were just gone... He could only see the good memories… ***

"Wow, I feel stronger! "

"Well then, try using your powers then…"

Bobby didn't take long to answer that request, raising his hands and creating a GIGANTIC ice block as high as the mansion is less than 8 seconds. He summoned an ice-slide and he moved on top of the ice block.

" WOOOHH! AWESOME! "

The younger students on the sidelines were for cheering him out of excitement.

"This feels amazing!"

~ Let's hope that this doesn't turn to megalomania… ~

" I heard that, Max! "

"WELL, MAYBE I WANTED YOU TO HEAR IT, BOBBY!" Max smiled towards Bobby.

Everyone at the sidelines had a little bit of confusion on their face, however Professor Xavier sensed the mental messages shared by Max and Bobby. Max himself summoned an ice-slide and moved himself on top of the ice block next to Bobby.

" You can use my powers too?! "

" Yes… But it's not as effective..."

"Well Bobby… Think you can be a bit more 'creative' ? "

"OH I'LL SHOW YOU CREATIVE! YEEEEEHHH HA!"

* * *

Everyone on the sidelines were very impressed by they were witnessing. Kurt and Ororo especially as they were cheering as loud at the younger students. Kurt said;

"That iz't one amazing gift! Don't you think so, Rogue?!"

Kurt looked towards Rogue, she was staring at the gigantic ice-block in disbelief. She quickly took her eyes off the ice-block looking at the ground and crossing her arms…

"Rogue, are you alright?"

"I'M FINE, KURT! LEAVE ME ALONE! "

An angered Rogue suddenly stormed off the basketball field. She felt the same sensation she had when she was spying on the conversation in the kitchen 3 days ago... It hadn't left her mind for one second….. When she looked up onto the mansion trying to recollect her thoughts, she saw an open window. She saw Logan looking at the basketball field and she thought to herself;

~ Has he been watching the whole time? ~

* * *

That evening...

* * *

Professor Xavier and Hank had prepared one of the guests rooms for Max, and after dinner Max retired to his room.

He was a bit exhausted by the tour around the mansion, and using his abilities at the basketball field. His wounds were not healed completely, but the pain was endurable. After a long shower, he decided that he maybe should get some sleep. Max walked around the room a bit, at one side there was a bookcase filled with old books, he grabbed one and thought;

~ History of Art? ~

Max was a bit of a fan of history and architecture, he assumed that the professor must have picked that up from his mind when he was unconscious during his stay at the infirmary. When he placed the book back in the the bookcase he noticed his backpack at the desk beside walked in front of the desk and looked inside it. Most of the stuff inside was cleaned, and a faint smile emerged on his face. But then he noticed some small things missing….

~ Well… Most of it was garbage anyways… Wait….. Where's the …. ~

Suddenly he frantically threw everything inside the backpack on the floor, obviously searching for something….

~ Where is it?! ~

After emptying it, he threw backpack at the ground. Looking down on everything on the ground…. The faint smile he had was gone, he took another desperate look at everything… The picture frame was missing...

~ Damn…. I must have lost it… I'll have to go find it…. ~

After an exhaustingly large sigh, he thought to himself;

~ Tomorrow… ~

Max decided to turn in for the night, but when he wanted to head to bed, someone knocked at the door...

* * *

Max approached the door, before he even was in front of the door, he smelled a familiar scent. The closer he got to the door, the faster his heart started the beat. When he was at the door it felt as if he was frozen, unable to move. The vision of the man in the glass tank this morning flashed through his head. After a minute of staring at the door, he heard once again knocking at the door. However this time it was MUCH louder.

He opened the door, the scent he smelled a minute ago got much intenser. He heard a bit of growling as he saw the figure of an angered man. The man looked very muscular but not very tall.. He recognized the man from his old memories... A headache struck the man. Suddenly he spoke;

"Jim?"

"I ain't know who 'Jim' is, Bub. "

The angered man shoved him aside as he entered the room.

"Ahh.. Please come in then...? "

Clearly this man wasn't the man Max recognized from his memories, or at least his behavior wasn't.

He didn't appreciate this 'new' behavior and for some reason, once again felt his heart-rate increase. He remembered the conversation he had with Professor Xavier during lunch. This man was now known as 'Logan.' Someone with his own troubled past, much like himself. Xavier didn't tell him much else besides that, figuring it would be best to discover more during an 'as the professor described it himself; 'therapy-session.'

He squint his eyes, giving the man a bit of an angered look, which didn't go unnoticed by the angered man.

"Look fella, I ain't here for chit-chat, I want some answers."

"Well then…What kinda of answers? "

With a large growl the man raised his left hand revealing the picture frame, with an angered voice the man spoke;

"I'y wanna know why y'e had this photo with ya, and who are those people on it."

"Where I come from, people don't just steal things from other people their backpacks! "

"I didn't steal y'r photo, Bub!"

A minute of silence fell into the room...

Oh. this man really knew how to tick Logan off... The wolf-man smelled once again this familiar scent in the air, that smell quickly turned into a smell of anger and disapproval. This man clearly wasn't intimidated by him, much to the dismay of Logan. Max snatched the photo out of the man's hand, making the man growl out of anger. He stared at the man, something about this man brought the worst into him. The anger inside him was growing stronger by the minute.

"You'll get your answers when I can give you them."

"AND I SAY Y'A BETTER START TALKIN' NOW!"

"OR WHAT!? DON'T THINK OF A SECOND YOU CAN INTIMIDATE ME, MAN!"

There was absolutely no way that Max was gonna be pushed around by this guy...

* * *

Meanwhile...

* * *

On the other side of the Xavier Institute a young woman had her own part in the story…. Rogue hadn't shown up at dinner this evening. She was still feeling awful about everything she witnessed these last days, Logan's nightmares, the man at the gate, Logan's spying on the man and the students, the man's ability and everything else involving them. Nothing made sense in her mind, like she wasn't being tormented enough already.

She decided that she wanted to get the know the man... She wanted to talk to the man this afternoon but with Bobby and those other students around, she decided not to. Another reason was that she kinda disliked the man, she wasn't sure herself why. Rogue decided it would only be fair to get rid of this dislike was is to get to know him.

She walked through the mansion and towards the hallway with the room the man was staying at, it was unusually quiet in the Institute. As she came closer, she heard a large growl….

~ Was that Logan? ~

The closer she came the louder she heard something yelling, she wasn't sure what was being said. She quickened her pace towards the man's room. She noticed the door was open and ran towards it. Suddenly she heard;

"If you think that growling in people their faces will get you ANY answers then you are VERY WRONG, Jim!…. or Logan, whatever I have to call ye now!"

"Now listen here, Bub!"

**"SHAKT! SNIKT!"**

**...**

**...**

**...**

**...**

The silence of the night filled the room as the blood dripped on the wooden floor. Both frozen solid as if time had frozen itself. No breath, not even gasp was heard, if all the life was sucked out of them. They both stared as if they had no soul, like they were just... empty shells. A feeling unlike anything else, like they were the same but still quite different...

She who entered the room watched in horror and saw the two men collapse to the ground, covered in each others blood…

* * *

Next chapter: Max's story

* * *

Notes;

From now on the story will get a stronger focus on just 4 characters, you probably can guess by now who those 4 might be.

* * *

**STAY TUNED!**


	5. Chapter 5: Max's Story

~this implies thoughts and mental messages~

*** This implies visions or anything mentioned about abilities. ***

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for the OC's.

* * *

Chapter 5: Max's Story.

* * *

Out of nowhere Bobby heard a loud scream, he opened the door of his room and heard another distress call. He ran in the direction of the noise and found a distraught Rogue standing at the end of the hallway in front of the guests rooms.

"Rogue!? What's going on? Why are your scr-….."

Bobby looked down on the scene, he saw the two lifeless men on the ground in a pool of blood, both stabbed in the stomach. The vision of the young man and his teacher was utterly horrifying. Both with three large holes seeping out blood onto the floor.

"Holy… F&# ….."

"Bobby, go get Hank!"

While staring downat the scene, he heard the 'command' of his fellow teammate and friend. Bobby knew that Hank was still in the Laboratory. He had left him there less than thirty minutes ago, running back and forth would just be waisting time…

"GO GET HANK!"

"No, That's waisting time, We need to get him to Infirmary NOW! Logan can heal through this. This guy WON'T!"

Bobby instantly switched to his stronger organic ice form and moved towards his wounded new friend on the floor. The man was unconscious, he noticed a bone claw similar like Logan's sticking out of him left arm covered in blood. Bobby lifted him off the ground, almost holding him like a child. He felt the warm blood seeping out of the wounds. The man was heavy, even in his ice form. Bobby almost praised himself for how much Logan and Scotts training exercises in the Danger Room pulled off. Looking at the unconscious man, he saw the blood coming out of his mouth. He had to get his new friend to Hank ASAP.

"You look after Logan, I'll get him to the infirmary."

Rogue stared at the Iceman as he carried the man out the room, she didn't know that he could pull that off. Her attention quickly was back at Logan when she heard a small moan of pain and discomfort. Looking down at her teacher and friend, she noticed the wounds were already closing up.

After a short minute, she saw the man slowly regaining his consciousness….

* * *

One hour after the incident, Professor Xavier, Scott and Logan were in Logan's room. Logan sat down on the bedside, holding his hands to his head. He stared down to the ground, unable to face Charles sitting in front of him. He was at his wit's end. Scott stood near the door, with a frowned face and crossed arms.

After several minutes of silence and staring, Charles spoke;

"Logan, Tell me what happened."

"Professor! You've seen what happened to Max! Logan stabbed him."

"I've seen the wounds, Scott. But I want Logan to TELL me what happened."

Logan made a low growl while revealing his teeth, which didn't go unnoticed by Scott and Charles. He himself had no words to describe what happened. Everyone knew that Logan wasn't the talker, however being 'the silent one' now wasn't gonna help him either. It took him several minutes full with growls and moans before he started talking.

"I…..dunno'. Something jus' set me off…. **I just grabbed the 'cub' by the arm... **and he stabbed ME…Ya could've told me he had a claw himself, Chuck. "

"You disappeared for three days after he was brought in, We would've told you if we had the chance…"

" Mhrhrm… So how's the cub now?"

~ cub? ~

Charles looked down at the Logan, he sensed that it wasn't his true intention to harm the young man. Before he showed up at Logan's room, he was at the infirmary with Hank. Hank already told him that things were 'gonna be ok'. Hank mentioning that Maxwell had triggered his ability when he came into skin-contact with Logan, taking some his healing abilities and fusing it with his own. Even due that his wounds would heal, he feared for his mental state…

"Well, Logan. Wounds heal… but I am more worried that after this... He won't trust us anymore…"

"It was a fuckin' accident! I didn't want to stab the cub."

~ Cub? Why does he refer his as a 'cub'? ~

"I understand, Logan. YOU might have feel like it was an accident, but we don't know how Maxwell will think about this…. However this raises another question…. Why were you at his room then?"

"Couldn't wait any longer, Chuck. Just needed some answers."

It wasn't Logan who wanted answers, it was Wolverine who needed them. The familiar scent, the photo, the scent of Sabertooth around the man, everything just brought out the worst in him. Logan told Xavier and Scott about how he felt this indescribable anger he felt inside ever since the man was brought in, mentioning the strange dreams he's been having before his arrival.

After hearing the story everything made a lot more sense, Logan once again stared down at the ground. There was something else he still had on his mind. Professor Xavier sensed that he wasn't going to tell this with Scott in the vicinity, he asked him to check up on the rest of the students. Ever since the incident there was some confusion in the whole Institute. Around a minute after Scott left, Logan spoke once again...

"There's somethin' else….When I ... uh…."

"When, what... Logan?"

"When I stabbed 'm….smelled and touched all th' blood, I dunno… It was like a vision or somethin', can't explain it."

"What did you see?"

"It was like th' dreams, flashes of memories…. Able to see everythin' so clear for a just a moment. "

"Flashes of th' forest, a'y small cottage in the mountains. I think it was my home or somethin'…. These flashes of the woman on th' photo. Me and her, Together….. Things got fussy after that….. "

" I was in a'y forest WITH her and we found the kid, starved and left in the woods, around 4 years old. I carried him from the ground. Ya could say some memories were pleasant….But then… the nightmare resurfaced again… The woman murdered and the boy stabbed to DEATH…"

Charles eyes widened after hearing Logan speak, remembering himself about the whole 'Weapon X' situation, and now they had to deal with this too...

"And?"

"Nuthin'. Next thing I know, I was passed out on the floor."

"So.. Do you think that-"

"Yeah Chuck, that was life before WEAPON X…"

Silence filled the room after hearing the words; Weapon X…Charles sighed, even he wasn't able to discover anything of his life before Weapon X. After several minutes of silence Logan stood up and with a calm voice said;

"I'm gonna see the cub, Charles. "

"Wait, Logan. Before you leave I want to know something… Why do you call him a** 'cub' **?"

"Heh, Charles. With THAT attitude and strength, he's a young wolf-man himself."

* * *

Meanwhile

* * *

Down in the infirmary, Max was back in the same bed as before he had left the infirmary that day earlier. In the chair next to the bed sat Bobby, he hadn't left Max's side since he brought him in. It felt strange, but Bobby knew that he shouldn't leave his new friend alone. Ever since Bobby shared that 'psychic-bond' with Maxwell, he felt as if he's been friends with him for years. Bobby looked at the unconscious body, staring down at the bone claw sticking out his left arm. It was as if he was hypnotized by it, the claw still had some dried blood on it, but that wasn't just normal blood… That was LOGAN's blood.

Bobby re-imagined the scene he saw only about an hour ago, he couldn't understand that this guy actually stabbed Logan. He had mixed feelings about it, unsure if he should even be here.

~ What if he wakes up and stabs someone again?….. No, No… He wouldn't… ~

The feeling that he was his friend prevailed the bad feeling, even due that he only met the guy not very long ago.

Outside of the Infirmary in the hallway stood Hank, carefully observing Bobby and the unconscious man beside him. It was pretty unique for Bobby to be so caring for someone, he was always the slacker of the group, the goof, never taking anything serious. Hank figured it would be a good thing.

Earlier Hank already had said Bobby that he should leave while cleaning the wounds, He almost praised Bobby for his determination when he screamed; "No!" right at his face. Ever since that he hadn't said another word. Hank figured it was gonna take some time before Max would wake up again, remembering himself what he said earlier to Charles… ~ The wounds are healing rapidly thanks to Logan's healing factor but I'm not sure about his mental state.. ~

Suddenly Hank heard footsteps behind him, when he turned around he saw Rogue approach him. As Rogue walked closer towards Hank, she noticed Bobby next to the unconscious Max. When she was in front of Hank, she asked;

"He's still in there?"

"Yup, he refused to leave…I already asking him to leave but he's do determined to stay at his side... I didn't ask him again."

"It wasn't a pretty scene, Hank. I applaud Bobby for stepping up and carrying him here, and even due I don't like sayin' it, he did more than I'y could've done."

Hank and Rogue both stared at the Bobby in the infirmary, it looked he had fallen asleep in the chair next to Max, after a small moment of silence Rogue said;

"I'm gonna go talk to him."

Rogue stepped towards the infirmary, leaving Hank standing in the hallway.

* * *

Rogue entered the infirmary, she looked at Bobby who had his eyes closed. He wasn't really asleep, he was just lost in thoughts. Rogue approached the bed, looking down on the unconscious man. and after several seconds of silence, Rogue spoke;

"Hi Bobby."

"Hi.."

Several awkward seconds of silence appeared, neither Rogue nor Bobby really wanted to talk. They both just wanted the man to wake up. Ever since Rogue found the man at the gates, she's had so much questions and uncertainties. Going through the same mixed feelings Bobby's going through NOW.. Rogue desperately wanted to break the awkward silence, unsure what to ask, she said;

"So… How's Max doin' ?"

"What are you? Blind? You can see that yourself, Rogue."

Rogue didn't blame Bobby for his reaction, it was a stupid question, still she never expected that he would say that.

"Ya don't have to yell like that, Bobby. I've felt the same ever since I found him at th' gates three days ago."

"I know, Rogue... Sorry."

Once again that awkward silence appeared, they both hated it, neither of them just knew what to say to each other. They both were confused, tired, unsure what to do next.

"Want to talk about it, Bobby?

"Not really…... Do you?"

"No…"

That awkward silence kept coming back... Confusing and uncertainty filled the room. Both staring at the unconscious body and the claw with the dried blood stains….But that feeling of confusing and uncertainty quickly faded as Rogue and Bobby saw Logan enter the infirmary…

Logan stepped in the infirmary, he immediately sensed a change in the atmosphere. The scent of confusing he smelled all the way from the hallway was gone within seconds and upon entrance he was being glanced by Rogue and Bobby.

~ Anger… ~

Logan smelled the tension in the air, a scent of anger coming off the boy. It was more than that... more like a protective scent, It was strange for Logan to see the carefree, goofing off Iceman like this. Normally he wouldn't care what people really thought of him, however this felt different. Something in the back of his head told him not even to ask him anything. Logan took a glance at Rogue, her expression and scent wasn't the same as Bobby, but he sensed that she somewhat felt the same as him.

" How's he doin' ? "

" ….. "

Rogue sighed and Bobby just stared at the ground, it angered Logan that he didn't get an answer. The beast's desperate need for answers was gone since the incident, but now it wasn't the beast who needed answers. Logan needed them, he felt responsible for what happened. Staring down at the unconscious man, he noticed the bone claw at his left hand, he felt a small twitch of pain coming from his stomach, noticing the blood on the claw… After a long sigh, Logan said;

"Look... Ya' two can just give me death dilence as long as ya want, Its not gonna change anythin' …."

"Why do you even care, Logan?"

Logan stared at Bobby with an irritated expression. But Bobby himself looked up at his teacher with a face that could kill...That strange tension was getting stronger by the second.

~ Well, this is somethin' new… Kid got balls thats for sure….~

" You're the one who caused this! "

Bobby stood up, staring straight at his teacher's face in anger. Even he himself was surprised of doing that. That strange feeling he had at the basketball field this afternoon was back… **A feeling as if all the fear was gone from the world, like he could take on every challenge, every enemy. Yes… Even 'The Wolverine'….**

"He was nearly 12 hours out the infirmary, Now he's back in! How do you think he's doing!? "

" COOL IT, ICE-CUBE! Didn't want this either! It was a fuckin' accident! "

~ What the fuck, kid… ._. ~ thought Logan...

Rogue stood frozen solid as she saw Bobby yell at Logan, she never expected that out of him! She was already impressed by Bobby ever since he carried Max to the infirmary, but now? She had no words for it. Several minutes she listened to the yelling and growling made by the two men.

Suddenly she noticed Max's right hand moving….

"For the last time, Kid! It wasn't my fault!

" HELL IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT! "

"… s… stop..."

Instantly the room was filled with silence. The trio stared down at man as he slowly woke up. They didn't expect him to wake up so early. The man was moaning in pain as he tried to get up. He glanced at his left arm, moaning in pain. Every move he made was followed by Bobby, Logan and Rogue. Suddenly he spoke;

"No, It wasn't his fault..."

" Wha.. what do you mean? "

" Just give me a minute, please…"

Max heard the mumbling of the three people staring down at him. Max opened his eyes and looked them, he smelled a strange scent in the room, a scent shared by the three. When he looked at them, a vision emerged….

* **He saw himself unconscious in the same bed as he was in right now…however the man in the vision never woke up and slowly faded away. ***

~ Wait... They all feared for my life or something? ~

Rogue, Logan and Bobby noticed Max staring at them, lost in thoughts. The three shared looks with each other and stepped closer to the man, suddenly Rogue spoke;

"How are ya feeling?"

"I'm fine, I think… My arm 's just on fire..."

The three were once again silent as they stared at the man's arm slowly retracting the bone claw, seeing the blood drip on the bed sheets. Max stared at his arm as he saw the small wounds on his hand slowly disappear. After a short minute of silence and staring, Max spoke….

"I want to tell you my story….."

"18 years ago, I was found by a couple in the forest, a man and a woman. I was around the age of 4 I think… They took me in, even due I can't remember a lot of time, I can still vague remember the sound of laughter…"

Logan's eyes widened, this was what he saw! Max continued before he could even say anything.

"But not long after I was with them, something happened…. An... And I don't know what…. The photo I had with me was made by my father; Andre. He's not truly my father but I called him that, made things easier... He told me this same story when I was 12 years old.

"Andre came by almost every week by the couple. He was close friends with the young woman, her name was Kayla. The man's name was James but everyone always called him ' Jim.' He had a friend called 'Victor' who sometimes visited them. One day he had a camera with him and made a picture of them together. "

"The young boy on that photo is indeed... ME…"

"But the something happened... One day when visited the couple, something felt wrong…when he arrived at the cottage. He found the cottage wreaked, almost destroyed and barely standing. He found Kayla dead. While mourning for her death, he heard a faint noise and he found…ME…"

"I was fatally wounded but somehow I managed to survive… He didn't know why… or how…. He told me I was glowing faintly blue. Like an aura, as if it was protecting me. "

"He once told me that he felt that this was a gift of God… He desperately wanted a son himself, Andre had no family left himself."

"He took my to England, to London. Where he raised me as his own son, he always told me that I was a bit special. A bit vague, but special non the less…. I never fitted in with other children… "

"Yup… The classic; 'He's a freak'-story…... I was always able to see strange visions when I met new people, which sometimes caused headaches. At the age of 14, I was more maturely developed than anyone else at that age, looking like an 18-year old. Which made me stand out from the crowd, and one day my other 'powers' manifested. I was unable to control all the visions and had to deal with massive headaches. Not very long after that the claw appeared…..

Max pinched his eyes close.

"I… I accidentally stabbed a young girl…. killing her…. I… don't know what happened but it was like a beast on the inside was telling me to do it….. It was the first time that 'the claw' came out… "

"Andre and I fled London to avoid prosecution, with the help of some of his friends we were able to take on a new identity, changing last names. We fled to Scotland, to a small town somewhat isolated from a lot people. Andre helped me learning how to deal with the visions and tame the beast inside... After a few rough months we tried to live a normal life again… I rarely use my claw, it causes so much pain..."

"But 5 years later, we were sold out by one of Andre's friends and the police came to arrest us, we shortly lived as fugitives… And when we were being shot at in the forest… Andre gave his life to allow me to escape…."

**"That was now three years ago and the photo is ALL I have left of him…"**

"He always told me that he wished to be able to discover what had happened to 'Jim and Kayla'… So that's why I decided to discover it myself. For Andre."

Rogue, Bobby and Logan stared in Max, processing the story they just heard. The scent of anger that earlier was inside the room was gone, replaced by scent of care, disbelief and a bit of sorrow. After several minutes of silence. Bobby said;

"But wait… Does that mean tha-...?"

Before Bobby was able to finish his sentence, he was cut off by Max.

"Yes, Bobby… I didn't know for sure at first, but after what happened today... I know that Logan indeed IS… No.. **WAS** Jim..."

"..."

~ Kayla? …. Andre?…. Cottage…. Victor….. Saber...tooth…. ~

Rogue, Bobby and Max all stared at Logan, he looked down at the ground, growling. Still processing the story told by Max. It was somewhat a hard story to hear, everything caused so much confusing inside Logan's head. Still there were some questions left, he remembered the scent coming off Max when he first was found by three days that Max had spend in the infirmary, Logan had searched for Sabertooth, but he couldn't find him. He lost the scent towards the north in direction of the Canadian border. After several small growls, Logan said;

"So who's the one that attacked ya, cub? Before ya showed up here? "

Logan already knew who the man was that attacked him, however he wanted to know if Max himself already figured that out...

"Well… 3 months ago I came back to the United States after hearing about 'Charles Xavier's Institute'… I was looking for someone who could help me find answers. It wasn't easy getting back to the United States, but i'll spare you that story for now…"

"Three weeks ago I was traveling through the woods to avoid attention. I was approached by a mutant, long blond hair, intimidating wolf-like appearance, sharp teeth, strange clothes, growling. He carried a strange scent, but I didn't recognize it. "

"Suddenly he attacked me, I can still remember him screaming; '**WHO ARE YA?!'**… And while I don't like to admit it, he beat my ass good…. I was able to escape him, but he kept stalkin' me. Why I do not know."

"And ah well, that's pretty much how I got here..."

The same silence that was earlier in the room, came back ONCE again. Bobby, Rogue and Logan all had their arms crossed, processing what Max told.

" We'll figure out what to do next, cub…. "

And several minutes after that, Logan, Rogue and Bobby left the infirmary. Max slowly back fell to sleep, the trio left the man. Leaving in silence as they left each other in the hallway, walking to their own rooms..

* * *

The next day, early in the morning.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Maxwell. I'm afraid that I can't help you any further."

"It's ok, Professor Xavier, I'm grateful for everything you already did for me."

Charles was in the infirmary, he's been for over an hour trying to discover anything new about the man's past, however it was without prevail. Charles was very surprised how much Max's condition had improved compared to last night, the man was already walking around the infirmary. The worries about his mental state were gone as well. However Charles and Max both were bothered that they were unable to make any progress with his memories… After several short minutes of silence they heard someone come in.

"I'y think, I know a way to get cub's memory back."

The two men in the infirmary widened their eyes when Logan came in, both wondering what he'd had in mind. Max was eager to ask him, however before he could even ask something he was interrupted.

"So.. How are ya feelin' cub? Any better?"

~ Cub? ~

"I'm alright, I guess..."

Max stared at the concerned expression the man carried, It was almost the opposite from the last night. He still remembered the heated conversation he had with him before the incident... All that anger was gone. The anger and hatred the two felt inside was gone, replaced a sensation of respect, care and somewhat concern.

"Maybe he should go back to the Canadian woods. Charles."

"What do you have in mind, Logan?"

"I'y can take the cub to the Canadian Rockies, takin' him on a short trip could maybe trigger some ol' memories... Up for it, Cub?"

Max stared in disbelief at request Logan made, unsure how to respond to it. The look that Logan had on his face was convincing enough, he was determined to do this. However just outside the infirmary two others were not so sure about Logan's plan…..

* * *

Summary for next chapter:

Logan, Max, Rogue and Bobby leave for the Canadian Rockies. Rogue and Max get a chance to get to know each other better, but after an ambush they are separated from Bobby and Logan...

Next Chapter: The Trip - Part 1: **Separated!**

* * *

Note; It kinda sucks that I already broke my 4-5 days promise :/ But I'll do my best!

Please R&R!


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